liamnugent

Thank you for the input, I'll go ahead with the taper than. Also I am by no way condoning the use of drugs, quite the contrary. But whilst using ketamine my HPPD got considerably worse whilst high, and the day after most all of my symptoms were gone, any idea on what might be causing this?

Hello all, Sorry if this question has been asked before, if it has then please let me know with a url to the post and I will close this discussion. Since my HPPD started and I am noticing an extreme improvement in my symptoms. Since my last relapse post I have been taking ketamine at least once a week which I do not feel good about but as it was the only drug I could take without increase my HPPD symptoms, and finally gave me a release, an escape so I got comfortable with the drug but I understand how slippery of a slope this is so I am going sober from now on. I would like to taper off of my clonazepam and stay on my lamotrigine, I have been taking 0.5mg of clonazepam for 4 months since my HPPD started and have been on 300mg of lamotrigine for the 4 months period as well, obviously with a tapering up of the medication. I was taking 2mg of clonazepam to start with for the first month but felt it was too much and after reading the horror stories of the withdrawals I stupidly dropped to 0.5mg instantly. Other than slight irritability and aching muscles I didn't seem to have any serious withdrawals symptoms. What would a correct method of getting off of clonazepam be from the dosage and time I have been taking this medication for? I have used a calculator online that recommends the following taper timeline: Week 1: 0.4 milligrams of clonazepam taken once daily - (12.5% decrease from the original dose) Week 2: 0.4 milligrams of clonazepam taken once daily - (25% decrease from the original dose) Week 3: 0.3 milligrams of clonazepam taken once daily - (37.5% decrease from the original dose) Week 4: 0.3 milligrams of clonazepam taken once daily - (50% decrease from the original dose) Week 5-8: continue current dose Week 9: 0.2 milligrams of clonazepam taken once daily - (62.5% decrease from the original dose) Week 10: continue current dose Week 11: 0.1 milligrams of clonazepam taken once daily - (75% decrease from the original dose) Week 12: continue current dose Week 13: 0.1 milligrams of clonazepam taken once daily - (87.5% decrease from the original dose) Week 14: continue current dose Week 15: discontinue How would one lower the doses in 0.1 increments? And is this a good timeline to follow? Thank you for all of your advice and I seriously appreciate all of the private messages I have recieved and support. Time to go sober and see if I am actually healing or if this is a result of the medication. Best regards, Liam P.s. I hope everyone has had a good Christmas and New Years Eve!

First off, I'll start with the title. About a week ago, I relapsed after almost 4 months of being sober. I would occasionally drink, and this was just because I couldn't take any substances any more. I was tipsy one night and took probably 0.4g of ketamine throughout the night, staying up until 6 in the morning playing games with my friend. It was the first time in these 4 months that I have genuinely felt happy. Although I have no lasting side effects from this drug usage, I can't help but feeling intense regret knowing that I could have made it worse, why would I gamble making my condition worse, I just don't get why I would even chance it. Secondly, my mental state has been nothing but a steep decline to the point where I felt like I had to reach out, I gave the UK Samaritans a call and the person on the other side of the phone could hear through my stuttering and crying. I have never felt so broken in my life. They also said I should not be so hard on myself and that I need to realize that everyone makes mistakes. I have had my lamotrigine dosage upper to 300 mg a day, this is my first day at this dosage and I have lowered my clonazepam dosage as I could feel myself becoming dependent on the drug. I have just recently got an HC2 certificate for full help with medical costs with the NHS which is great as I am a student, but I can't see any of the drugs I am taking are actually helping with my HPPD. Not only that, I am sorry about the depressing post, but I feel like I have nowhere to turn, I feel lost, a shell of the person I was before all of this and I hate it. I hope all of you have a great recovery story and any advice would be greatly appreciated as I feel like I have hit the absolute lowest point in my life as of now.

Hello All! Hope everyone is doing well, if not continue to push harder, there will be a day we beat this. I am talking with a mental health doctor, and he is very understanding of the condition, although I am the first patient he has ever treated for HPPD despite him seeing other patients with HPPD (I believe this is because I did my research and read on this forum and told him my understanding of the situation). I was first started on clonazepam at 2 mg each day, 2 0.5 mg pills in the morning and 2 0.5 mg pills at night, this worked wonders to start with, but I quickly started to notice my symptoms again. Long story short, I am now taking: Monday Lamotrigine 25mg Mirtazipine 15mg Tuesday Lamotrigine 25mg Mirtazipine 15mg Wednesday Lamotrigine 25mg Mirtazipine 15mg Thursday Lamotrigine 25mg Mirtazipine 15mg Clonazepam 0.5mg 9am Clonazepam 1mg 8pm Friday Lamotrigine 25mg Mirtazipine 15mg Clonazepam 0.5mg 9am Clonazepam 1mg 8pm Saturday Lamotrigine 25mg Mirtazipine 15mg Clonazepam 2mg 9am Clonazepam 2mg 8pm Sunday Lamotrigine 25mg Mirtazipine 15mg Clonazepam 2mg 9am Clonazepam 2mg 8pm My symptoms remain mostly the same, but I will be titrating up the lamotrigine slowly up to an acceptable level to see if that helps at all. Any advice is hugely appreciated. Stay safe and keep pushing on, Best regards, Liam

Hello all, I would like to update you quickly of a doctors appointment that I have recently been too. My head pressure kept increasing and causing such intense headaches that I could barely think, if felt like my eyes were being pushed out of my head like a squeezy toy and I needed some relief so the doctor prescribed me Amitriptyline, from what I understand it is a tricyclic medication and should have no effect on my HPPD. Two weeks into treatment I can say that the head pressure has almost gone and the constant borderline migraine has definitely reduced to a point that I can cope with now. My visuals have also not improved or worsened at this point, I am also sure that I have HPPD at this point as after drinking a can of Monster energy drink my visual snow increased and got so bad that I could barely see. Thank you for your time and godspeed to your recoveries, we will find a cure!

Thank you for your response, I thought that acceptance and getting stronger about the situation mentally is the best way forward as many if not all of understand there is no cure, only thing that alleviate symptoms. I have a doctor's appoint booked for today where I am going to tell them all of what I have written in my post and I will update with whatever they say. Again thank you for your comment and godspeed to your recovery, we can and will get through this!

Hello All! Hope everyone is doing well, if not follow the words of Winston Churchill "If you're going through hell, keep going" you can do this. I joined uni in September 2021 and to say the least, I made some bad choices with substance abuse. Below I have listed what substances and the frequency I used them: Weed/Hash/RSO | Every day, anywhere from 3 to 15 joints a day just to exist in a high state. LSD | Most weekends, most of the time double dropping 200ug tabs, some days even going as far as 5 tabs spread over the day, this only happened twice. 2C-B | This was the worst as I am sure I become addicted to the drug and only stopped because my dealer ran out, taking 30mg pills multiple times a week. Psilocybin | Taken every couple of weeks to a month between usage. My highest dosage was 3.7g of AA+ mushrooms which was my first bad trip, I never want to go back to that place nor will I. MDMA | Once or twice a month, I would take a little bag of 0.3g - 0.5g and key that through the night. Ketamine | This was infrequent as I hated the taste so I used this probably 3 times over 6 months. Cocaine | I tried 2 bumps of cocaine both times I hated it. Speed | Only tried once and couldn't sleep until 5 the next day, weirdly I didn't feel highly energised, just felt focused. Kratom | Only tried once. The most I took at once was at a campfire with a group of friends and again I need to list what I took in just one night: 2 tabs of LSD 3 30mg 2C-B 1 gram of MDMA 1 250mg MDMA pill 800mg of weed edibles Joints when they were handed to me. I hadn't tripped in about 4-8 weeks when I got back home and on the 28th of June, I had a friend message me saying "I have some strong weed that makes me prang out" of course I needed to try this and invited him over, I smoked a joint and went to bed. Shortly after is when I got the worst case of cold sweats I have ever had along with shaking, the feeling of impending doom, and genuine belief I was about to die, safe to say the weed did in fact make me prang out. After a couple of hours of comfort from my girlfriend and a cold shower, I managed to get to bed, when I woke up all the symptoms of what I now know is HPPD were apparent. The following night, intense shaking/convulsing ensued waking my girlfriend up, and out of fear for my life and thinking something was wrong I called a friend and had them take me to the A&E (I live in the UK by the way), 10 hours later I was seen by a doctor and given the all-clear after my blood and ECG all came back clear. I have visual snow now, quite apparent halos around text, persisting positive lights that stay in my vision after looking at bright lights, constant headaches, and having more anxiety than I have ever experienced. I also have been having episodes of intense vertigo followed by nystagmus (In my case my eyes shaking left and right with rapid speed, I have also confirmed this is not BPPV, also I have recorded my eyes during one of these episodes and they do not move, leading me to believe this is some kind of damage to the brain. I am going to talk to a doctors about this soon. I have also visited an optician to have an OCT scan of the backs of my eyes and an in depth look of my eyes and they seem to be in perfect health, again leading me to believe this is an issue not associated with my eyes. After completely sobering up from everything instantly after the A&E trip, I have now accepted the fact that I am dealing with HPPD, to increase my chances of recovery I am now taking multiple vitamins including B1 B2 B6 B12, and a plethora more (The exact multivitamin I am taking now) I am starting to eat slightly better by having my own packed lunches and starting to eat fruit, sleeping better usually from 11 pm to 7 am or around that time, and have started drinking a lot more water along with swimming intermittently. Is there anything else I can do or change to increase my odds of recovery? Best regards,